N7
by GarrusVakarian2153
Summary: You have important places to be. Garrus and Shepard will get you there.


p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Within seconds everything for you went to hell. You knew it was happening elsewhere and that it was only a matter of time before they reached you. You had managed to hide all this time in a room built for something like this. With enough resources to keep you going. But nothing lasts, that strong feeling of disbelief kept telling you that you had more time; and yet here you were, hiding under your desk with a Cannifex in your hand and gunfire and screaming outside. Every nerve in your body was telling you to run, or to fight, or to hide. You kept thinking to yourself em"I need to fight, be strong just like her. I need to get out of here."/em But just as you thought you scrounged up enough courage to move, the fighting stopped and you heard footsteps heading to your door. Heavy footsteps of some heavily armed thing that you were now totally convinced you would at the very least have an extremely difficult time killing. You moved from the desk and went over to the corner just out of view of the door, at least you'll be able to get in the first shot./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"There was a heavy handed knock on the door, then suddenly a voice yelled and there was more gunfire, more screaming. It sounded less like the slaughter of before, and more like an actual battle. Two sides slugging it out just outside your door. Was this you're chance to escape?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Again there was a knock on the door. "Now would be a very good time for you to open this door please" A familiar voice said; alien to be sure, with an almost raspy subvocal. The voice sounded exhausted./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Despite all the protesting in your head you moved and unlocked the several latches and bars to your door. When you opened it the back plate of blue and silver armor filled with dirt and blood and scratches greeted you. You looked up and the turian turned and looked at you with a bit of an impatient look. "There you are, we need to get you out of here, we don't have much time." He had a huge scar along the left side of his face and fresh cuts along his forehead where blood had been slowly dripping down. His right hand was bleeding, and he was gripping his gun with seeming impatience. It looked like he had just fought his way out of hell./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He caught you staring at him with a shock and dumbfounded look. "Ok, the name's Garrus, though from what I was told, you would already know that. We honestly don't have a lot of time left… well you don't anyways, they're here for you and if we don't get you out of here I won't have anyone to tell awesome stories about me or artwork for future generations to look at with admiration. Now can you walk?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You just kind of nodded your head and Garrus nodded and began to walk forwards, gun at the ready. You moved through the hall down towards the atrium at the bottom of the building, one of those things bursted out of a door just as Garrus passed it and you watched in horror as he struggled against it before managing to break it's head almost clean off with his bare hands after shooting it a few times right in the chest. He looked at you and asked if you were ok, and you just nodded and you both kept moving. You could hear a bunch of them moving through the upper floors, and what sounded like really big ones moving cars in the streets. You made your way down to the atrium quietly careful not to step on something and alert everything to you're presence. Garrus made a motion for you to hide by a fallen column from the building and you moved over to it quickly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Garrus went and took up position not far behind you and radioed to his team. "Shepard, I found them, what's the situation outside?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"There was static for a few seconds before she replied "Bringing it inside" she said. Right after she said that the glass window by the door on the far side of the room burst open from gunfire and you watched in awe as the legendary commander dove through, hitting the ground with a roll griping her AR as she turned to face the window. Then one of those massive things just tore through the wall below the window and Garrus shot it right in the head with his rifle before Shepard used her biotics to bury it by bringing down an entire section of wall. You looked behind you as the turian seemed to have an ever satisfied smirk at seeing the commander. He put away the rifle, barrel still smoking, and took out his assault rifle again. He motioned to you to follow him and you met up with the commander./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As you approached her she looked you up in down and amusingly smiled and said "So you're the trouble huh? Wanted to just stay behind for ever?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""This is all I've known, for years. How could I?" you said./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yea… I know it's hard. But there is no future here, it's out there. On that ship. We'll need someone to tell our story if everything goes sideways." Shepard responded./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Goes sideways? Hasn't it already?" You said, a little taken aback./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""We're not quite done here. We've still got one last push coming up. One last push. But not until we get you out of here. We need to get you on the shuttle and up to that ship." Garrus said./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Both of them moved out the hole in the wall and into the streets and you had no choice but to follow. Maybe they were right, what else is there for you here? Just repeating the same memories over again hoping for something different? Some better end result? You know how it all ends up in the end. Maybe out there you can find some hope./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You moved out into the streets. It was dark out and you couldn't tell if it was night, or if all the smoke and dust in the air simply blocked out the sun. There were fires everywhere and destruction was everywhere you looked. You swallowed that feeling of despair and kept moving. You had to hide behind wrecked cars a few times as you tired to sneak past patrols. Some of them the other two had to fight off, you even managed the courage to reach the gun over the top and fire a few rounds, but you were still working up the courage to get out off cover. You didn't have any shields like the other two; how they gleamed with every bullet they deflected, like appearing out of the shadows. You couldn't help but feel a sense of awe when watching these two in action. You couldn't take your eyes off them as you peered around the corner to watch. Their effortless synchronization with each other was flawless. One takes a shot, drawing the enemies attention while the other pops out and takes them out. Shepard wordlessly throwing a singularity into a group of them and Garrus shooting them all. Headshots, every one of them. They advanced swiftly and you scrambled from car to car, worrying less about hiding now, and more about making sure you could see. You could totally understand all the stories of how unstoppable these two were in a fight; against all the odds. It was like they were connected somehow and with each momentary action came another complimentary action from the other. A quick double tap to his side and Shepard tossed him a spare heat sink even before his hand returned to his gun, he caught it and slammed it into place in one single motion, all wordless communication that in no way slowed down how fast they were pushing through. You found a rifle off one of the dead ones and pried it loose. You felt inspired and walked a little taller. One of the large ones burst through a wall flanking them. You took aim and shot at it, distracting it long enough for them to take it out. They looked back at you and nodded in approval and in thanks. You moved forwards together as a squad. They leaded they way drawing attention, as you took what opportunities you could to take out some of the bad guys./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You felt like you were tapping into their energy that kept them going. Fighting through countless enemies, fighting beside these two and watching them work ignited a fire inside your chest and you've never in your life felt so… Alive. Like everything was not hopeless and so long as we had these two and the rest of the crew behind them everything would be alright./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nothing could stop them./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""We're almost at the LZ, be there" Shepard called through the radio, and a soldier acknowledged her command./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Not long after you could see a Kodiak shuttle scream overhead, external guns blazing as a one of those flying abominations chased it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Let's go" Shepard said and you started moving again. There were no bad guys to shoot, and it was eerily quiet. Maybe they retreated, you thought to yourself./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emMan, I didn't think anything scared those things. But I can see why these things would be terrified of these two./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You made it to a clearing, what looked like a defensive point that soldiers failed to defend. It was on the top of a hill, with concrete blocks around it like a crown for cover./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You followed them as you scrambled up the hill. The shuttle passed by overhead, and you watched as it spun around and fired it's main cannons at the flying thing, killing it, and then barrel rolling out of the way./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"At the top of the hill you could make out the rest of the city. Fires were burning everywhere and there was intense fighting over in the northern corner of the city. All the tall buildings were gone; everything was destroyed. The shuttle came around and as it approached for landing, you could hear multiple blood curdling screams and mechanized roars. They were at the bottom of the hill./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As the shuttle hovered over the ground and you hopped on, you turned to look at the other two and asked "You are coming right?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"They both looked at you and then Garrus turned to face the noise. Shepard spoke "Sorry, no can do. We're not quite done here. But you are."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The sounds were near the top of the hill, you could hear them. "How do I know you'll be alright? How do I know what happens?" you yelled over the sound of the engines./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You don't. But what you do know is the future is out there. Not here. It's up to you now." Shepard spoke./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Garrus turned to look at you and said "Don't worry about us. We're hard to kill, and after we get you out of here we have one last send off to give. We'll be fine."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The first horror peered over the hill and you took shots at it, killing it. Shepard and Garrus took position behind the barriers, and Shepard yelled one last thing./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Time to go. Don't forget about us. It's been fun. You are the hero now. Say goodbye, and look one last time. And wherever you go… "The doors to the shuttle closed as they both opened fire on the approaching mass of creatures. You slammed on the door as the shuttle began to move, your chest feeling like to was about to implode and tears suddenly streaming down your face./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""…and know… wherever you go, we'll be right there with you. This is Commander Shepard, Signing off. Good luck out there."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You watched through the video screen desperately as you the kodiak flew farther and farther away, the last glimpse of them that you caught was of them being surrounded by dozens of those things. You slammed on the screen as the shuttle left the atmosphere. You moved up to the flight deck, and watched as you flew past the massive battle going on all around you./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"You heard radio chatter calling out visual confirmation of the priority exodus package; friendly ships came in and directed fire around you, opening up a lane through the enemy forces for you to pass through. Fighters screamed past as they battled the smaller orb like things. You passed by frigate wolf packs the screamed past, the audio emulators filling the shuttle with their awe. Guns firing every which way, cruisers teaming up and taking down a reaper with concentrated fire. Dreadnoughts firing their main gun, while the hundreds of port guns lit up the sky. You passed by the outskirts of the battle and jumped. Hidden on the far side of Saturn there was this large vessel; something you've never seen before./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As you boarded you could see species of every type walking around frantically. Scientists, soldiers, civilians. Then red lights started flashing and everyone took their positions on seats lined against the walls. You sat on the shuttle and you could hear as the engines of the massive ship started to spool up for the jump to… wherever… you could just make out one last radio call through the static./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""The Crucible has been armed… *Static* …Disengage and get the hell out of here."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And then the ship jumped. Words of the commander echoing in your head./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emAnd know, that wherever you go, we'll be right with you. This is Commander Shepard signing off. Good luck out there./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"em…/em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emGood Luck out there./em/p 


End file.
